Back Cove Project: Since the inception of Bringing Nature Home in Maine, many entities and professionals have sought Maine Audubon’s support and guidance in developing landscape designs and management plans which do more to incorporate wildlife and habitat restoration. In some cases, this has resulted in shaping the revegetation plans for large high profile projects. One example of this is the Back Cove stormwater/sewer separation project which has been visible from I-295 as one passes through Portland. In the summer of 2020, while things were shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Maine Audubon staff worked with landscape architect Regina Leonard to ensure a planting approach using 100% historically native species. In May 2025, the project was finally completed and the new landscape was installed, vastly enhancing wildlife habitat amongst numerous features for human health and wellness.
Living Schoolyards: In the summer of 2024, our partners at Maine Association for New Americans (MANA) helped us recruit 12 teens to help us learn about and plant species from the K-5 Wabanaki Studies curriculum at Portland elementary schools. These new plantings will enable teachers and students to visit these plants during the school year while they study their importance to Wabanaki culture, relationships with wildlife, their indications for climate change, and other ecological benefits they provide. All told, we planted 82 species at five elementary schools. The 12 teens who had recently emigrated from Angola learned about many new careers and earned $500 stipends for their hard work during some very hot days. Read more about this project >
ReForest the City: ReForest the City is a grassroots effort to encourage restoration of the urban tree canopy in Portland. In 2024, Maine Audubon joined forces with the West End Neighborhood Association, providing both education and free native plants to neighborhood residents. In 2025, we will be planting native trees and shrubs in the yards of residents who apply. With a small community grant from Maine Medical Center and technical assistance from Maine Audubon, ReForest the City will: provide a free native tree or shrub to residents in the West End, Parkside, St. John’s Valley, Libbytown, and Western Promenade neighborhoods; help select a planting location and species; and assist planting the tree! We hope to plant up to 50 native trees this year. Other partners include the Portland Parks Department, Portland Parks Conservancy, and the Portland Sustainability Office.
Franklin Meadow: Portland Parks and Recreation and Maine Audubon, with support from Portland Pollinators, partnered to create a meadow full of native plants that will benefit birds, butterflies, and other wildlife. Approximately 300 plants, grown from seed or collected by Maine Audubon specifically for this project, were put in place, and the area was also supplemented with seed. Read more about this project >
Deering Oaks: King Middle School and several partners adopted an area in Deering Oaks in 2019 to restore and study wildlife habitat. In partnership with Maine Audubon, US Fish and Wildlife, and others, students and teachers at King Middle School have adopted this site to practice and promote environmental stewardship. In particular, they are restoring habitat for birds and other wildlife by restoring a native forest understory to replace acres of lawn, which is relatively devoid of direct benefits to Maine wildlife. Read more about this project >
100 Resilient Yards: In 2023, the city of South Portland launched its inaugural 100 Resilient Yards program, with the goal to have 100 property owners apply to take part in a community effort to help residents transform their lawns into resilient, organic landscapes founded on healthy soils. From the start, Maine Audubon has supplied native plants and other support for this program and is excited to be taking part again in 2025, when the focus will be on replacing lawn areas with native habitat gardens.
Willard Beach and Hinckley Park: Starting in the fall of 2020, the City of South Portland used backhoes and excavators to remove thickets of Rosa rugosa, bittersweet, and numerous other invasives at Willard Beach. They cut invasives, dug out the seed bed, sifted it off-site, and returned it as clean fill. In May 2021, Education Director Eric Topper began planting native plants in the highly visible and heavily trafficked area. Maine Audubon worked with the City of South Portland’s Parks and Recreation and Water Resource Protection departments on a shoreline restoration and revegetation project at Hinckley Park, planting hundreds of native plants which will help to slow and absorb stormwater runoff. We’ve also replaced invasive species with native plants at Willard Beach.
Bangor Beautiful Maine Audubon Mural: In the fall of 2025, Bangor Beautiful and Maine Audubon partnered to transform a cement retaining wall on Broadway and State Street in Bangor with a powerful combination of public art and native plantings. The project features five large-scale murals by Eastport artist Alison Ross, smaller companion murals created by students from three area high schools, and the planting of native plants along the mural and in the median.
Read these blog posts for more details:
Bangor Beautiful and Maine Audubon Collaborate on Bird Mural and Native Plantings on Broadway in Bangor (September 5, 2025)
Bird Mural Takes Flight in Bangor (September 30, 2025)
In 2018, Maine Audubon began working with family members of the late King Cummings, a revered community leader in Guilford and throughout Western Maine, as well as community leaders to develop a grant-funded project to restore habitat and engage local youth. Thanks to a generous grant from the H. King & Jean Cummings Charitable Fund of the Maine Community Foundation, we have been able to offer advising, classroom visits, plants, and other support to students at Guilford schools, which draw from numerous other communities in Piscataquis County. For example, in 2023, Maine Audubon worked with students at Piscataquis Community High School to restore habitat and landscape interest on a popular path along their namesake river. This culminated in students and staff planting 180 native wildflowers, each species chosen for specific ecological and cultural benefits, along the path and riverbank. Read more about this project >
In 2025, Maine Audubon partnered with IDEXX (a Maine Audubon Corporate Partner) to design and install a Maritime Shrubland demonstration landscape at the company’s global headquarters in Westbrook. The result is a landscape that requires minimal irrigation, fertilizer, or maintenance, while providing rich habitat and year-round ecological function. It serves as a living example of how corporate campuses and commercial properties can lead the way in restoring native biodiversity, right outside their doors. Read more about this project >
Trinity Church: Maine Audubon staff and teens from our inaugural Sprout Lewiston summer stewardship program (Summer 2022) worked with leaders at Trinity Church & Jubilee Center Food Pantry and Soup Kitchen in Lewiston to replant the meditation gardens and outdoor events space with Maine native plants. “This is a special place that really makes a difference in people’s lives,” says Andrew Tufts, Program Manager for Bringing Nature Home. “People always stop to enjoy this green space.”
Maine Audubon has been working at different sites in the upper Narraguagus River watershed, working with students from high schools and colleges and other partner organizations, to use native plants to revegetate areas where new road crossings and engineered river features are connecting and diversifying instream habitat for endangered Atlantic Salmon. It’s the perfect environment for Maine Audubon’s conservation horticulture and student engagement work. Read more about this work >
Community Conservation Horticulture Nurseries: Maine Audubon is launching an exciting new project to develop four community tree and native plant nurseries around the state. These nurseries will produce trees that city arborists will then use to restore the forest canopy in urban Portland, Bangor, and Lewiston/Auburn, and all kinds of plants which will be used in habitat restoration projects Downeast. Read more about this project >
Maine State Parks: This was a collaborative project between Maine Audubon, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Gulf of Maine Coastal Program, and Maine State Parks to engage communities in restoring native plants and habitat for pollinators and other wildlife. Look for demonstration gardens and habitat restoration areas throughout Maine State Parks (Range Pond State Park in Poland, Kettle Cove and Crescent Beach State Park in Cape Elizabeth, and Lamoine State Park in Lamoine) during your visit. Scan the QR codes you see to learn more about the plants and this project and find out what you can do to restore habitat for pollinators and other wildlife. More info about this project >